Douglas Tottle (born 1944)[1] is a Canadian trade union activist and journalist, most notable for being the author of the book Fraud, Famine, and Fascism: The Ukrainian Genocide Myth from Hitler to Harvard, which is classified as Holodomor denial literature by the United States Library of Congress.[2] The book describes the Holodomor, the 1932–1933 human-made famine in Soviet Ukraine, as a "myth", a hoax perpetrated by Ukrainian fascists and anti-Soviet organizations in the West.[3]: 403  It cast the "fraud" as originated by the German Nazis, and perpetuated by the CIA, and the supposedly CIA-linked Harvard University.[3]: 403 

Tottle's critics regard him as a "Soviet apologist",[4] or a "denunciator" of the famine.[5] Tottle has been defended by the Stalin Society, author Jeff Coplon, educator Grover Furr, and the Swedish Communist Party, all of whom insist that his book is valid historical research that exposed the "myth of the famine-genocide [...] once and for all".[6] Tottle's work was submitted to the International Commission of Inquiry Into the 1932–33 Famine in Ukraine and was examined as evidence during the Brussels sitting of the commission.[7]

Biography

Tottle was born in Quebec, but later lived mainly in Western Canada. He had various jobs throughout his working life, including photo-lab technician, fine artist, miner and steelworker. As a trade union activist, he edited The Challenger, a journal of the United Steelworkers, from 1975 to 1985. Tottle also researched labour history and worked as a union organiser, for example among Chicano farm workers in California and Native Indian farm workers in Manitoba. Tottle has written for various Canadian and American publications.

Holodomor denial in Fraud, Famine, and Fascism

Douglas Tottle is mostly known for his book Fraud, Famine, and Fascism: the Ukrainian Genocide Myth from Hitler to Harvard in which he argues that the theory that the Soviet famine of 1932–33 was intentionally orchestrated by the USSR, was a creation of Nazis propagandists, thence perpetuated in America by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst.[8] Tottle argues that although mistakes in Soviet economic policy were contributors to the famine, other factors including kulak sabotage, hoarding of grain, weather conditions and foreign sanctions also contributed.[8]

Tottle writes that he is more interested in the "Nazi and fascist connections" and the "coverups of wartime collaboration".[9] In 1988, the International Commission of Inquiry Into the 1932–33 Famine in Ukraine was set up to establish whether the famine existed and its cause. Tottle was invited by the commission to attend the hearings, but did not respond. Tottle's book was examined during the Brussels sitting of the commission,[7] held between May 23–27, 1988, with testimony from various expert witnesses. Commission president Jacob Sundberg subsequently concluded that Tottle was not alone in doubting a "famine-genocide", alluding to the fact that material included in his book could not have been available without official Soviet assistance.[10]

Anne Applebaum wrote that institutes of the Soviet government contributed to its writing, reviewed manuscripts and that Soviet diplomats also promoted the book.[3] She also states that this may have been a political response to the publication of Robert Conquest's The Harvest of Sorrow in the preceding year.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Year of birth from Library of Congress bibliographic authority record
  2. ↑ The Library of Congress. "Holodomor denial literature - LC Linked Data Service: Authorities and Vocabularies | Library of Congress, from LC Linked Data Service: Authorities and Vocabularies". Library of Congress. Retrieved 2023-07-03.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Applebaum, Anne (2017). Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine (1 ed.). New York: Doubleday. p. 338. ISBN 9780385538855.
  4. ↑ Sysyn, Frank (1999). "The Ukrainian Famine of 1932–3: The Role of the Ukrainian Diaspora in Research and Public Discussion". In Chorbajian, Levon; Shirinian, George (eds.). Studies in Comparative Genocide. New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 193. ISBN 0-312-21933-4. OCLC 39692229. Retrieved 19 April 2009.
  5. ↑ Marchak, Patricia (2003). Reigns of Terror. Montreal; Ithaca: McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 183. ISBN 0-7735-2642-0. OCLC 52459228. Retrieved 19 April 2009.
  6. ↑ "Kris i Ukraina 1932-1933". Klasskamp, historieförfalskning och den kapitalistiska förintelsen (in Swedish). Sveriges kommunistiska parti. Retrieved 21 April 2009.
  7. 1 2 Sundberg, Jacob W.F. "International Commission of Inquiry Into the 1932–33 Famine in Ukraine. The Final Report (1990)". The Stockholm Institute of Public and International Law. Archived from the original on 4 December 2004. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  8. 1 2 Douglas Tottle (1987). Fraud, Famine and Fascism: The Ukrainian Genocide Myth from Hitler to Harvard. Progress Books. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-919396-51-7. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  9. ↑ Tottle, Douglas (1987). Fraud, Famine and Fascism: The Ukrainian Genocide Myth from Hitler to Harvard. Toronto: Progress Books. p. 3. ISBN 0-919396-51-8.
  10. ↑ A.J. Hobbins, Daniel Boyer, "Seeking Historical Truth: the International Commission of Inquiry into the 1932-33 Famine in the Ukraine", Dalhousie Law Journalhh, 2001, Vol 24, page 166
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